NSW did enough on Wednesday night to demonstrate that last season's historic series win was no one-off but the odds are now firmly stacked against them repeating the feat after losing a game they should have won.
The fact Johnathan Thurston opted to attempt a 45-metre penalty goal and the Maroons needed to rely on a 74th minute field goal by halfback Cooper Cronk to snatch an 11-10 victory win underlines how little now separates the two teams.
Yet the Blues should have won the series opener at ANZ Stadium after dominating the first half in impressive fashion. Somehow the wheels fell off in the second half and poor decision making repeatedly let NSW down.
Cronk's field goal proved the difference on the score board and he was the missing ingredient for Queensland last year after being injured in the 20th minute of the corresponding match last season - won 12-8 by NSW - and then missed the second game, won 6-4 by the Blues.
His return in Origin III coincided with a 32-8 victory by Queensland but the game was a dead rubber as NSW had already won their first series in nine years.
Just as they had done in the first two games last year, the NSW defence was inspiring and centre Josh Morris and captain Robbie Farah came up with trysaving tackles.
In fact, NSW missed just 16 tackles in the game comparred to 19 by the Maroons, despite having to make 356 tackles to 322 but mistakes, penalties and poor last tackle options proved costly.
None more so than in the dying minutes when halfback Trent Hodkinson failed to attempt a field goal from in front or when fullback Josh Dugan was forced to on another occasion after mistakenly getting the ball on the last tackle.
It was a contrast to the first half when the Blues had seem composed and in control.
NSW were relying heavily on their bench having an impact on the match, with the belief in the Blues camp being that if they could hold out Queensland in the opening stages the likes of Andrew Fifita and David Klemmer could give them the edge.
But by the time Daley introduced Boyd Cordner into the game as his first interchange in place of lock Josh Jackson, NSW were already on top and held a 10-6 lead.
Prop James Tamou was outstanding in his first stint and started the movement that led to NSW's first try in the 20th minute with an offload that sent Josh Dugan on a 30 metre run before the fullback kicked ahead as he came to Billy Slater and Morris won the race for the ball.
Tamou also played the ball after one of his eight charges with the ball, which yielded 72 metres, before five-eighth Mitchell Pearce was able to get a short ball for Scott.
Fellow starting prop Aaron Woods ran 90 metres from 10 carries of the ball and made 19 tackles in his first stint before being replaced by Klemmer in the 31st minute to help set the platform for the Blues impressive opening.
Fifita yielded 86 metres from his 10 runs while Klemmer made 81 metres from nine runs but by the time they were replaced by Tamou and Woods midway through the second half Queensland were back on top .
In fact, NSW could consider themsleves lucky to have only conceded one try during the opening 20 minutes of the second half.
